[mtgnexus] Random Card of the Day - Archfiend of Depravity

[lyonhaert]

I'd end up leaning toward Boomerang|Mirage because the copy I have is Mirage with awesome RKF art, but I agree the deck would probably be primarily blue if not mono-blue if I were doing that. Leaving uu open anyway could feign a counter, which could be useful. Otherwise if I wanted bounce I'd be more likely to use something like Unsubstantiate, Echoing Truth, or Expel from Orazca with additional benefits/flexibility.

Edit: Or Reality Shift. Almost forgot that one.

[Serenade]

The Shakespeare quote, what a throwback! I miss that.

[3drinks]

I always liked putting this card on the stick. That was fun. For me, not you. 👀

I play more Captain Boomerang.

I saw this nickname and thought you'd have linked Heidar, Rimewind Master.

[hyalopterouslemur]

I always liked putting this card on the stick. That was fun. For me, not you. 👀

I play more Captain Boomerang.

I saw this nickname and thought you'd have linked Heidar, Rimewind Master.

No, Heidar is Alexander Luthor, Jr. "I will replace this reality with a better reality. Everyone and everything will cease to exist, and in its place, a perfect world. No, Clark, it's not genocide. Why would you even think such a thing?" (Which, to be fair, I totally understand him since Flashpoint.)

I like Boomerang, and it can bounce any permanent. And it goes on the stick, always a plus. But you know me, always looking for new ways to screw with my opponents' mana.

[TheGildedGoose]

ok boomerang

[Mookie]

I find bounce effects like Boomerang to be pretty niche in EDH - they're generally a tempo play, and games often go long enough that tempo plays don't matter as much. There are exceptions (Cyclonic Rift being the most notable, but Capsize and Evacuation also see some play), but they generally serve functions other than just tempo - either as board wipes, or win conditions when they can be used repeatedly.

As for Boomerang itself... I feel like its best usage is similar to the role of Echoing Truth in Modern, as a way for combo decks to temporarily bounce hate pieces like Rule of Law and Rest in Peace - depending on what colors you have access to, you may not have good answers to problematic artifacts or enchantments, and if you're planning to win via combo, you only need one turn without them. Even then, there are other options I'd play before Boomerang - Cyclonic Rift and Capsize both have significant advantages over it.

I'm actually going to call out Eye of Nowhere as another alternative - sorcery speed means it is usually worse, but arcane subtype is relevant for splice shenanigans. I was once in a game that ended with Desperate Ritual spliced onto Eye of Nowhere, followed by Radiate into Comet Storm. Pretty niche, but it made a good story.

[TheGildedGoose]

Into the Roil and Blink of an Eye are much better, clearly. As Dirk pointed out bouncing a land is niche and stapling a cantrip onto bounce helps take the bad out taste of card disadvantage out of your mouth. That said, tempo in general is underrated in the format, but much like pinpoint discard it requires a lot of finesse and meta knowledge to perform admirably.

[3drinks]

Saturday, January 18th, 2020; Drownyard Temple

[BeneTleilax]

I've seen this put in work in a Freyalise that just recurred it over and over until she had around a dozen 5/3s

[Dunharrow]

I just figured it out
Nyxbloom Ancient, Amulet of Vigor, Drownyard Temple, Zuran Orb. Infinite life, baby.
But all joking aside, this land is reasonable. Sometimes I see people play it in self-mill decks, and I don't think it is worth it there so much, but if you have any repeatable land sac then it could be pretty cool.

[BeneTleilax]

The decks that tend to want this (Freyalise, Gitrog) generally have more degenerate things to do, and from what I've seen often gravitate towards those.

[Serenade]

(You mean Titania, right?)

[pokken]

I used to play this in Gitrog and it was always solid, but it really demanded a slow game because you're spending quite a lot of mana. That said, with Gitrog it functionally cost 2 since you got to tap it before you sac'd it. But that still adds up.

I rarely got into those kinds of games in Gitrog which is why I took it apart.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Iä! Ahem...This is okay. It won't protect you from Armageddon, though it makes recovery slightly quicker. (I prefer Sun Titan or Crucible of Worlds as anti-geddon tech.) It will let you pay 3 to skip ahead c on your mana base if you discard it. (Zoetic Cavern does the same for 5 if you cast it.)

In Titania or Gitrog, it can loop.

[3drinks]

Sunday, January 19th, 2020; Humility

Grrr.... ...

[Serenade]

I had hoped you could play Haktos while Humility is out and get around picking a number, then bounce Humility and give him protection from everything.

Turns out he gets protection from nothing if you never chose the number!

[pokken]

I don't wanna go all banlist but I find this card is inevitably toxic. Never once played a game with humility that was fun for anyone, even the Humility player didn't have a good time but goes through the motions ultimatting his stupid planeswalkers over an hour while people tried in vain to stop it, and countering the one removal spell I drew into.

It's the type of card I think is best avoided as a gentleman's agreement. Too many decks just get turned into literal nothing by this.

Yeah, yeah, play removal, but sometimes you don't draw it or it gets countered. And then all the creatures you have in your hand or draw are worthless.

Not a fan.

[toctheyounger]

Yeah, it's undeniably strong. I've only ever seen it produce a generally bad vibe for the table when it drops. I'm a relatively good sport, so I'll try and play around it if I can, but it's often a losing endeavor, and the loss is usually painful for all involved.

On face value it's fine, but the real world implications often only become evident once you're staring down the barrel of it. It's a significant nerf, but Overwhelming Splendor is a lot more bearable, if for nothing else the casting cost and restricted nature of it. You never know, the table might pity you and remove it at some point.

At any rate, yes, people should play more non-creature removal, but nonetheless, Humility seems like one of those cards you generally avoid unless there's a table-wide agreement that holds should not be barred.

[schweinefett]

Ive never had a game where humility dropped that wasn't fun, actually.
That being said, i've got a group that has a lot of rules-nerds and it's an interesting dive to figure out if it affects painter's servant, and what might happen if you had an opalescence in play and a blood moon. 'cuz you know, it sometimes happens.

I like the art too. There's something about foglio art in the old era of magic that takes me back to a better time, before PWs ruined the game.

[DirkGently]

My main experience with humility is playing it in nahiri and cackling evilly while my tokens vastly outclass everyone else's 7-drops. I thought it was super fun. In retrospect I'm probably evil though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

[pokken]

I like the art too. There's something about foglio art in the old era of magic that takes me back to a better time, before PWs ruined the game.

I honestly can't disagree. I really dislike almost all walkers and they really exacerbate the problems with humility.

[Mookie]

Humility is a very powerful card against creature-based decks - vanilla 1/1 creatures are, as a general rule, pretty useless. And considering that many decks has 20+ creatures, playing a single card to invalidate huge percentages of your opponents' decks is a pretty good deal. I regularly try to fit cards like hate cards Torpor Orb and Aven Mindcensor into my decks that can support them, and Humility outclasses pretty much all of them.

That said though... while I appreciate the presence of hate cards in the format, and believe that people should be able to tech them in against specialized strategies, Humility is way too much for my taste. I have two main problems with it - it protects itself (by shutting down Reclamation Sage, Caustic Caterpillar, and other creature-based removal), and its relative rarity (due to price and being on the reserved list) makes it really hard to justify playing around. Somewhat similar to the 'you should play colorless removal so your monocolor deck doesn't get shut down by Iona, Shield of Emeria' argument - unless you're in a meta where Iona (or Humility) shows up regularly, you're not going to have answers for it, which means the card is much harder to deal with when it does show up.

As for decks that play it... I usually see it in either enchantress / prison decks (because it is a very good way to lock your opponents out of the game) or superfriends decks. If you play it, expect to draw a lot of hate.

[Hermes_]

I lost my copy :'( otherwise i'd run it in my enduring ideal deck,which is token based. There's a Toothy/pir deck that currently, I use Solemnity to deal with,but Humility would make it feel less of directed target.

[ironic gesture]

I run it as an uber hate card in a Junk tokens deck. I agree it can lead to some feel-bads but I also feel that deck is pretty fair at abusing it by being built to simply generate more 1/1s than anyone else and close the game fairly quickly. To me that's less annoying than my buddy who runs it in Golos super friends but 🤷🏼‍♂️

[3drinks]

Monday, January 20th, 2020; Bitterheart Witch

Academy Rector you are not...but I guess it's cool to fetch up that Curse of Death's Hold right?